The 2019/2020 Covid pandemic has forced a lot of us to stay at home. It’s been tough, there’s no doubt about it. So let’s think ahead & look on the bright side, spending the summer of 2020 at home, enjoying the sunshine & time with our loved ones. A lot of us are counting down the minutes until each restriction is lifted. One of these is having your extended family & friends in to your home again. Some have been working tirelessly on their gardens, planting, mowing, strimming & sheering. However I have been so focussed on improving & doing DIY inside the home that the garden has been forgotten. First world problems, I know. But now I am thinking of an extended & brighter summer ahead & in my mind I see colourful scatter cushions in the garden, floating sails & striped awnings. I spot tassels & amongst the laughter I hear the faint jingle of little bell trimmings sounding in the breeze. Oh the joy! Bright turquoises, magenta pinks & mandarin oranges. Or maybe sage or olive greens & taupe…. or what about navy & white? Too much choice! I am reassessing my outdoor fabric range & today I’m sharing some of my studio fabrics with you. But first, it’s important to know what you need to look for for your home & garden.

What do I need to know?

There’s a lot of information to take on board if you genuinely want to learn about performance fabrics for the home. I’m covering the basics here today; Performance fabrics; Martindale Counts; Fibreguard Fabrics & Indoor / Outdoor fabrics.

Performance fabric is the term used in the design & furnishings industry to describe a textile that is durable, hardwearing & easy to clean. Performance fabrics are stronger & can withstand more wear & tear than standard fabrics.

When stains occur on our upholstery- which let’s face it- happens from time to time, performance fabrics can be treated with a little warm soapy water & some gentle spot cleaning or blotting. Tougher stains- the ones that bring on mild panic when they happen- can be treated with a little household cleaner or upholstery shampoo.

Performance fabrics also withstand a higher rate of abrasion which means that they won’t wear away as quickly as standard upholstery fabrics will. The standard measure of abrasion in the EU is the Martindale test. If a fabric has a high Martindale rub this means it will be more hard wearing.

How does it work? A fabric specimen or sample is cut from a batch of fabric & is secured on to a machine called a Martindale Abrasion tester. Each sample is rubbed against a standard wool or felt fabric or even light sandpaper on a rotating disc plate, with considerable pressure.

These rotations (or rubs) are counted by a computer & the fabric is given a grade based on how many rubs the fabric could withstand before noticeable wear & tear, pilling, weave breakages or colour differentiation appears. Some tests take several hours, some can take several days. You can watch a video of the machine in action here. Below I have put together a little table explaining Martindale counts & what they mean.

Martindale scores explained:

FibreGuard-

Also available from some Interior Design fabric libraries are FibreGuard fabrics which are high quality, durable fabrics that have been manufactured with permanent stain free properties which will last long after washing & prolonged use.

This makes the application a popular choice from busy households, to hotels & even boats.

Some domestic & contract fabric design houses carry the FibreGuard stamp on on their fabric ranges. This means that the fabric design & manufacturing house has worked in collaboration with FibreGuard to develop a decorative but practical, stain resistant & hardwearing fabric to withstand the hardship it might face in everyday use, whether it’s food & drink spillages, children’s shoes, dog’s paws, etc.

Kobe FiberGuard Fabric, available from our design studio library

Indoor/Outdoor Fabrics-

Some performance fabrics are especially useful in the outdoor furnishings industry. In addition to the higher Martindale scores & FibreGuard properties, other qualities & finishes have been built in to the manufacture of some fabrics to make them suitable for outdoor use.

What is generally referred to as “Indoor/Outdoor” or “InsideOut” fabric is fabric which has been treated to withstand several external damaging factors. The fabrics are usually:

Water repellant
Stain repellant
Lightfast / resistant to sun bleaching
Washable
Bleach cleanable
Resistant to mold & mildew

If Carlsberg did fabrics! Really though, what more could you need from a soft furnishing textile for the busy, modern family home? These fabrics have for a long time been applied to warmer climates around the world but some people are not aware that they can be applied to outdoor areas in milder climates too such as Ireland! Outdoor spaces of all shapes & sizes in Ireland, from apartment balconies to country gardens could admittedly benefit from some colour & added comfort to enjoy the finer days of the year & to lift our spirits. Once you have discovered performance outdoor fabrics, you’ll wonder what took you so long! They are called indoor/outdoor as they can be applied to either inside the house or outside. If you have an outdoor seating area why not bring your Indoor/Outdoor cushions from the family room sofa out to the patio in the summer days?

We hold a generous amount of Indoor/Outdoor, performance & FibreGuard fabrics in our studio library. To arrange for a sample or see the books in person please contact us and we would be happy to help.

Check out these performance fabrics, available to order from our studio:

Images courtesy of Thibaut; all fabrics shown are available from our design studio.